Propaganda Patterns from AP & Mainstream Media

[ronpaul2008]

I have been noticing some propaganda regarding the markets lately. Whenever there is a drastic up or down day, the media puts out an article giving what it claims to be the reason for the markets actions. This is invalid logical format as a day often has many positive or negative so pinning the markets changes on one event is highly speculative if not absurd. On a down day the actions will typically be pinned on a non-government entity. For example, "Market plunges 400 points lower on new economic data about lower consumer spending" or "GM leads market downward upon word GM could go bankrupt". When the market goes up they usually give the glory to some actions or remarks of the Federal Reserve or the government. Today was interesting as I noticed something new. To the financially literate the message was that the market went up due to the treasury and federal reserve 'saving' citibank at taxpayer detriment. But, to the average, less sophisticated individual they tell them the markets went up due to a press conference by Obama. LOL

Obama urges Congress to pass costly stimulus bill - Yahoo! News
Citing an "economic crisis of historic proportions," President-elect Barack Obama urged Congress to pass a costly, job-creating stimulus bill as quickly as possible. Stock prices surged — the biggest two-day percentage gain for the Dow Jones industrials in 21 years

I suppose the AP could argue those are two separate sentences and it does not mean they are claiming the former caused the latter. However come on, we all know what they are trying to influence people to believe. This propaganda was used to help rob the taxpayers for a giveaway to the banks. Whenever the market tanked the media made it look like that was because of actions that indicated the bailout bill would not pass. When the market went up the media made it look like it was because the bill is getting closer to passing. Markets to not move in straight directions and with the amout we had fallen lately we were due to get a couple up days, or whats known as a technical rally. If I had to pin the up day on an event it would be OPEC's actions which indicate they will limit oil, which caused oil to rally, which caused most the commodity based stocks to rally along with it.

This is an indication of how socialist we have become. It is easy to look at another country and see how free they are by how the local media is trying to slant the situation. Socialism and a controlled media system go hand in hand. A socialist government directs the labours of the people towards the good of all, but people are very individualistic so naturally have differing opinions on what is the best use of their time and energy. This requires socialist systems to need to produce propaganda to get the people to agree. Usually the propaganda is not effective enough and they need to resort to more drastic measures, literally killing off the individuals who dared to think for themselves.

 

[Paulie]

I agree completely.

Most people don't notice this, as it is very subtle. But we are being programmed and conditioned.

I've been arguing with posters here lately about this, when some claimed the market rallied the day Obama picked Geithner as Treasury Sec. In this highly volatile market, you simply can not pin rallies or sell-offs on one particular event, ESPECIALLY one that doesn't even affect policy yet.

The market jumped almost 500 pts. that day. To claim it was due to the Geithner pick is illogical, and naive. We've been watching this market move like this on a daily basis for months now. Geithner won't even be at the helm for another 2 months. Any experienced investor is not making drastic changes to their portfolio simply because a name was chosen.

No one wants to listen, though. Believing the media is conditioning us borders on conspiracy theory. We dare not call anything a conspiracy.